Russian arms sales to Syria and Lebanon a potential game changer
Yiftah Shapir, director of the military balance project at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies, warns that Russian arms sales to Syria and Lebanon could shift the balance of power in the Middle East. According to Shapir, Russia's arms sales to those countries are a way of reasserting itself as a player in the region's struggles. Moscow is set to sell Syria the Yakhont land to sea missile – a part of the Bastion missile system – which has a range of between 300 kilometers, and would be a “game changer” if it fell into the hands of Syria’s ally, Hizbullah, Shapir told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.The Yakhont is pictured at the top of this post.
“These missiles are supersonic, radar guided, and have additional navigational capabilities as they approach their target. They leave little time for response,” Shapir said. “The chances that it will end up in Lebanon are pretty high.
Shapir added that the advanced missile system would curtail the Israeli Navy’s freedom of operation around the Mediterranean, and enable Hizbullah to fire on warships near naval home ports like Haifa.
For its part, Syria is revamping its port in the coastal city of Tartus in order to allow Russian warships to dock there, giving Russia a presence in the area it has not enjoyed in the 20 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union.But what about Russia's relations with Israel? After all, when Russia was a big supplier to Egypt and Syria in the 1970's, they had no relations with us. But now they do. What happens to that?
But Moscow has not neglected its relationship with Jerusalem – Israel has been the only weapons exporter to sell arms to Russia since World War II, Shapir said, of the sale of Israeli UAVs to Russia in recent years.It was also a bad idea to sell them to Turkey for the same reason. But no one else wanted to hear that at the time. Ouch.
At the same time, Shapir said, Russia is not planning on arming its military with Israeli weapons. “They want to copy the UAV technology and reproduce it. This was made clear during the sale,” he said.
“My greatest fear is that in the future, we could see this same UAV technology in the hands of enemies. This could reach Hizbullah, and that would change things. Russia has its own calculations,” Shapir added. “Personally, I think it was a bad idea to sell them the UAVs.”
Labels: Russia, Tartus, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, Yakhont land to sea missile
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:23 PM
4 Comments:
Russia is a strange operator... they are the main "sponsor" of Israel's 2nd annual nanotechnology conference and have sent a major trade delegation to Israel.... while, with the other hand, seem to be setting up Israel's neighbors to destroy it. While on the third hand, isn't something like a third of Israel's population of Russian heritage (although leaving because of persecution? or to have more economic opportunity?). Friend or foe? Very, very hard to tell right now.
No one in Israel wants to hear the country is surrounded by deadly enemies. That's why Israelis are talking of giving up the Jordan Valley and compromising on Jerusalem. Its said it will be the end of the world if Israel doesn't give those places up. What's never mentioned is that it will be the end of the world if Israel's enemies are successful just once in a future war.
That's the real game changer Israelis are breezily oblivious to. Beside that, the national debate over freezing the revanants again takes on a decidedly surreal glow.
Game changer, indeed
Russia will always remain anti-Semitic to the core. What it wants is simply to pump Jewish brains.
Russia's problem is that it cannot be anyone's friend or true ally as it is incapable of treating any country with real respect and is alway hellbent on proving itself superior.
Russia is willing to f* over whoever it takes to get them back in a position of global power. If that means working with Israel on one project, but then selling missiles to Israel's sworn enemies on the same day, they'll do it.
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